International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers

Trans people are part of the sex work community worldwide and well-known for our sex work activism. Thousands, if not millions, of us earn some form of living by engaging in it.

Many trans sex workers have faced violence, and most of us have lost loved ones who were involved in the sex industry. According to our TvT project Trans Murder Monitoring (TMM), sex workers make up more than 60 per cent of the reported killing of trans and gender-diverse people whose profession is known. [1]

Due to stigma and laws that criminalise sex work, the risk of violence is a daily occurrence for many trans sex workers around the world. Violence often stems from the police and law enforcement, abusive clients, or “vigilante” citizens trying to rid society of what they perceive to be the “undesirables.” Pushed into criminalised sex industries, sex workers are exposed to racial, gender-based, class-based, and anti-migrant exclusion and violence, as well as clandestine and dangerous working conditions.

Security is a human right that we all deserve, including sex workers. The International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers, 17 of December, is a day to honour them, to honour us, and to raise awareness about the conditions under which we/they work. Today we remember our communities around the world who lost their lives and those who are dealing with the effects of trauma due to the violence we are subjected. We join the voices of trans and sex workers organisations and activists around the world in the urgent call for decriminalisation of sex work.